


A Little Sack of Drabbles

by TheVulpineHero1



Category: Flying Red Barrel (Video Game), Hololive, One Hundred Percent Orange Juice, SUGURI (Video Games), Touhou Project
Genre: Drabbles, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Wordcount: 100, collection, multi-fandom - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-02
Updated: 2020-11-12
Packaged: 2020-11-14 20:27:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 115
Words: 11,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20853602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheVulpineHero1/pseuds/TheVulpineHero1
Summary: A collection of drabbles written for various occasions - to say thank you, for milestones, for challenges, or whatever. Multiple fandoms, multiple pairings, no continuity, 100 word pieces only.





	1. Fire: Change and motion (Touhou)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Touhou Project  
Characters: Patchouli, Koakuma

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A quick note before we begin: I love drabbles, but it's been a while since I really had a chance to do many of them, so I'll be rusty for a while. I'll mention the series both in the chapter summary and the title (where possible) to make navigation easier. All pieces are 100 words, according to my own wordcount in Libreoffice and not including the prompt/title.

The last snows are melting; Spring has not been waylaid this year. The mansion is buzzing with fairy maids, armed with dusters and enthusiasm for the great spring clean.

“Koakuma,” she calls. “I can’t stand this dust. Come, bring those books. We’ll read in the garden today.”

It’s unexpected. But she’s feeling strong as of late. The last year was a busy one; the adventure has done her good. Even an unmoving witch must change.

The sunlight is still weak, and cold: a fine excuse for tea and cake. She shivers, but only slightly, and the afternoon passes in peace.


	2. Water: Silence and purification (Touhou)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Touhou Project  
Characters: Patchouli, Koakuma

“Stay still. Don’t speak.”

The path of knowledge is infinite. It is a truth known to monks on their mountains, and witches with their cauldrons.

Mountains, unlike cauldrons, do not explode.

It is beneath a witch to wash her familiar. But while knowledge is infinite, forgiveness is not. She has grown fond of her little librarian.

“Are you not going to join me?”

“I know better than to bathe with a succubus.”

“Darn. Can’t blame a devil for trying.”

Koakuma giggles, and slides into the water. Cauldrons are all well and good, but nothing is better than a hot bath.


	3. Wood: Life and awakening (Touhou)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Touhou Project  
Characters: Patchouli, Alice, Shanghai Doll

“Good morning, Shanghai.”

Patchouli greets the doll as if it were alive, and directs Alice to a chair. A cup of tea is cooling on the table for her.

She doesn’t greet every Shanghai doll. Only the original. There is something _more_ about that doll, something her stronger sisters lack.

Surely, that doll will wake up soon. She wonders if Alice knows. Maybe not. As witches go, she is almost a child – playing with childish toys.

Patchouli sips her tea, and keeps her silence. The joy of discovery is sacred. It would be rude of her to ruin the surprise.


	4. Metal: Wealth and abundance (Touhou)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Touhou Project  
Characters: Patchouli, Remilia, Meiling

There are few things more pathetic than a vampire with a chipped tooth.

Meiling presented them with little red envelopes for the New Year – a scattering of coins from the lowly gate keeper. None of them had any use for money, but it was the thought that counted.

“I _thought_ it was chocolate!” Remilia complains, nursing her tooth. “It’s _fashionable_ to give out chocolate coins this time of year!”

“Yes, yes,” Patchouli says, stroking her friend’s hair. “Look on the bright side.”

“Mm?”

“At least the coins were bronze. If you paid her more, she might have given you silver.”


	5. Earth: Foundation and immobility (Touhou)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Touhou Project  
Characters: Patchouli, Marisa

She’s set in her ways, because they _work._ A spell she can’t control is worthless; she chooses what is tried, tested, and true.

It’s why she cannot fathom Marisa – a wild witch who scrambles clumsily through every adventure, improvising furiously and grinning all the while. To her, the present is everything; she rushes headlong into the horizon, because the night sky will not wait.

Of course, her sticky fingers are a problem. But she’s convenient nonetheless. Even an old, hidebound witch like Patchouli has to experiment from time to time.

And she could hardly ask for a better lab mouse.


	6. Sun: Activity and offence (Touhou)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Touhou Project  
Characters: Patchouli, Marisa, Alice, Sakuya, Koakuma, Remilia

In her bones, she is tired. Her library, a place of silence, is full of chatter; one witch can talk for an hour, but three can talk for a day. The witches’ council is in session.

Sakuya brings them tea and cake; Koakuma scurries back and forth, delivering whatever tomes they request. Even Remilia visits – mostly, she claims, to keep Marisa where she can see her.

When it is over, the stillness feels empty, disquieting. She sleeps early that night.

For once, her slumber is a deep one, and though her throat is sore, she does not wake up coughing.


	7. Moon: Passivity and defence (Touhou)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Touhou Project  
Characters: Patchouli, Koakuma

A weight atop her body. Hands around her wrists.

“You’re getting careless, Mistress Patchouli.”

The little devil’s hair hangs like a bolt of crimson silk as she sits astride her master. Tonight her lips are ruby red.

“Yes, yes,” the witch says dismissively.

Koakuma leans in. Her scent is sweet and heady, her smile an invitation. “What would you do,” she asks, “if I kissed you right now?”

“Find out.”

The librarian blinks; her resolve falters. “You’re too good at this,” she complains.

Patchouli smiles. It’s dangerous to play games with a devil.

But only if you’re scared to lose.


	8. Acoustic (Touhou)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Touhou Project  
Characters: Reimu, Marisa

Under the moon on the shrine’s veranda, she feigns sleep in the cool summer air. The sound of laughter and the clatter of mahjong tiles echoes; the party will continue for hours yet.

Wood creaks. Footsteps approach, soft and deliberate. She keeps her eyes closed. Somebody sets down a beer mug. The sound of shifting cloth. Long silence.

Marisa’s fingers stroke her hair.

If Reimu opens her eyes, she’ll pretend she’s drunk. Marisa can be tender, or she can be honest. Never both.

The party goes on; the moon is high. And they tell wordless white lies upon the veranda.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I forgot to mention: these drabbles, usually, will be in themed sets, and this is the first drabble in a new set. The previous 7 drabbles were just themed around Patchouli Knowledge and the elements she uses; this set will be themed after 'sound'.


	9. Echo (Touhou)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Touhou  
Characters: YELLING DOG (I mean, Kyouko Kasodani)

There aren’t many yamabiko left in the world.

When she calls, the mountain answers. A trick to make her feel less alone. She shouts her welcomes loudest, with a smile: come, she says. Speak. Show me a voice that isn’t mine.

She surrounds herself with voices, with mantra, with sound. She repeats, and does not yet understand: the world of dharma of is filled with light. She, too, wishes to be full.

But echoes can only exist in empty spaces; she has been hopeless from the start.

She calls, and hears her answer, from the empty spaces in her heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part of why I love drabbles is that they give me an opportunity to 'sound out' characters and explore interpretations; here, I wanted to look at a more sombre interpretation of Kyouko.


	10. Scratching (Touhou)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Touhou Project  
Characters: Eiki Shiki, Komachi

“Sit down, Komachi.”

The only sound is the nib of Eiki’s pen making its way across the page. She doesn’t look up. Occasionally there is a rustle when she reaches the end of a page and begins another.

The problem with a woman who sees many sins is that she knows many punishments. There is a rhythm to her writing: calming. Soporific. Like the sound of water. Komachi knows that if she falls asleep, her _real_ punishment will double; this is just the preamble.

The only sound is the scratching of the pen – and, eventually, a slow and gentle snoring.


	11. Thunder (Touhou)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Touhou Project  
Characters: Kyouko, Ichirin, Unzan, Mystia (implied), Raiko

Her tail droops; her head bows.

“Please don’t report this to Byakuren-sama!”

Ichirin folds her arms across her chest. “Lady Byakuren will hear of it herself, I’m sure… I’m only here because Unzan wanted to come.”

The air crackles with impatience. The show must begin.

“...Okay! Cheer for me, Ichirin!” she says, and is gone.

“Is this really okay, though…?”

Unzan isn’t listening. Thunder sounds as Raiko strikes the drums; as the concert begins, he raises one great fist, index and pinky extended to the sky.

Choujuu Gigaku doesn’t know it yet. But they’ve found, by far, their biggest fan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My headcanon is that Raiko occasionally helps out Choujuu Gigaku as a drop-in drummer; I can't remember if she does it in canon.


	12. Pichuun (Touhou)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Touhou  
Characters: Marisa, Reimu

She lost again.

She lost again, and gave her friend the bottle of rice wine she’d been saving, and staggered home to lick her wounds.

She lost again, and had to laugh about it, because she didn’t see it coming until it hit her.

She lost again, and she told herself that danmaku comes from the heart, and if she just understand Reimu’s patterns, she can figure out what’s in her head.

She lost again, and she doesn’t mind it, because every loss is a little victory, and every collision brings them closer than they were before.

She lost again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There will be five more in the 'sound' themed set, but for a different series.


	13. Subwoofer (100% OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: QP Shooting / 100% OJ  
Characters: QP, Syura

“Syura, you wanna hit the karaoke box after school?”

It wasn’t that QP couldn’t sing. She could _definitely_ sing. You couldn’t _stop _her singing, no matter how much you wanted to.

She knew the lyrics. She even knew some of the notes. She wasn’t bad in music class, and had a rare passion for the trombone.

She just, well… she was a dog, and her hearing wasn't like other people’s. She sang in octaves that the human ear could only hear on a technicality.

Syura hesitates; QP’s tail wags. She knows what she’s getting into.

But she does it anyway.


	14. Rattle (100% OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Suguri & Sora / 100% OJ  
Characters: Suguri, Hime

The bones of the Earth are creaking, Suguri says. She is strangely indulgent about earthquakes, as if they were her favourite grandchild; they remind her that the planet beneath them is a living thing.

Hime is less enthused. She found it enchanting at first, but her favourite mugs broke in the tremors. She has enough trouble finding usable crockery in this house as it is.

Still, it seems a shame to miss an opportunity for mischief. She catches Suguri in a kiss, and asks: “Did the Earth move for you?”

Suguri says nothing. But the answer, as always, is ‘yes’.


	15. Quiet (100% OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Suguri & Sora / 100% OJ  
Characters: Suguri, Hime

Hime doesn’t believe in ghosts, but there are nights she thinks she could. For her, the early hours are too quiet by far; she misses the humming engines, the electrical ambiance of a spacefaring ship. She wonders how Suguri coped with it before she and Sora came – the silent house, the empty bed.

“Suguri,” she whispers, “are you asleep?”

It takes a moment, but her partner rolls over and opens a bleary eye. “Mh?”

“Sorry. I just… wanted you.”

They shift a little closer under the covers. In the early morning, the silence can’t be helped.

But the loneliness can.


	16. Bells (100% OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Sora / 100% OJ  
Characters: Alte

Let today be for us, she prays.

Let the soldiers fight somewhere else. Let the bombs drop, let the guns chatter, let the sky darken – but not here. Not now.

Today isn’t for battle. Today is for white silk and veils, bouquets of wildflowers, nervous whispered nothings. Today is for rings, the ringing of bells. Today she will be married; today, she will be complete.

She doesn’t know it, but she will still remember this day in ten thousand years. She will remember herself, young and happy and radiant. She will remember wedding bells.

And, despite everything, she will smile.


	17. Harmonica (100% OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Flying Red Barrel / 100% OJ  
Characters: Marc, Peat

She never really considered that Peat might have interests _outside_ of planes. He always presents himself as the Blue Crow, from the top to the bottom – it’s hard to separate the plane from the pilot.

But there are moments. Little chinks in the facade. Today she turned up to the workshop early, and caught him playing the harmonica in the pilot seat – something long, wistful, nostalgic. He’s not amazing, but he’s the kind of good that doesn’t just happen overnight.

It’s actually a little impressive, she thinks. Maybe even a little cute.

Although there’s no way she’d tell _him_ that.


	18. Ephemeral (OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: 100% OJ/ QP Shooting  
Characters: Syura

The pool is too cold to swim in; the summer holiday is over. Syura’s skin prickles under a swimsuit that’s slightly too small.

It’s her second to last summer holiday. The winter is for games and Comiket, the summer for the pool and QP; next year will be their last together. After that, there’ll be jobs. Deadlines. The world closing in.

Next year, they’ll have more fun. She’ll wear a swimsuit that’ll make even QP jealous. She won’t waste the time they have left. Starting from today.

The water is cold. She grits her teeth, and slips beneath the surface.


	19. Ceiling (OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: 100% Orange Juice / Suguri + Sora  
Characters: Alte

She doesn’t know how much further she can go.

Her hands shake when she leaves the battlefield. The wedding band on her finger is warped from the heat of her gun.

She, too, has warped and changed. She’s no longer the woman her husband knew; she is harsher, angrier, quicker to hate.

She prays he will still love her when the war is done. She believes in him, in love, because there is nothing else left worth believing in.

But love could not stop the war. Love, like her, has limits. And every day, she comes closer to finding them.


	20. Double (OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: 100% OJ / Suguri + Sora  
Characters: Mira

She was old, but she could fight. She was the strongest of her hometown; they whispered that she’d been born with a knife in her hand.

But technology became greater than experience. The old ways were no longer enough. They told her they could remake her. She agreed.

She spent her ‘last days’ feigning illness. The hero of her hometown died in a hospital bed. They took her to the lab twelve hours later.

Her brother came with her. His face was the last thing she saw before the operation.

She did not know just how familiar it would become.


	21. Claws (OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: 100% OJ / Suguri + Sora  
Characters: Tsih

Another stray. The professor clicks his tongue. There are are so many orphans nowadays. More, honestly, than his facility can support.

He speaks to the child, brushes away her tears. Offers her a home. He is too weary for kindness, but makes the effort all the same.

Before he returns to his work he gives her a length of string, and teaches her cat’s cradle – a game from his own childhood.

The next day they find him hung, his research burned. An orphan has disappeared in the night. The future will find them watchful.

They will accept no more strays.


	22. Alliance (OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: 100% OJ / Suguri + Sora  
Characters: Saki, Sham, Sora

“I _told_ you,” Sham said mournfully.

Despite their rivalry, she and Saki had joined forces to teach Sora the nature of cuteness. To gauge the enormity of the task, they’d set her a test: draw a picture of the cutest thing she could imagine.

Saki had expected a puppy. Sham had expected a bear.

What they _got_ was a duck-billed platypus.

“They’re very cute,” Sora opined. “They have poisonous feet.”

Sham sighed. Saki patted her gently on the back. They might not agree on who was the cutest.

But they both agreed they had a _long_ road ahead of them.


	23. Priorities (OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: 100% OJ / Suguri + Sora  
Characters: Nanako, Kae

Nanako’s number one desire is, always, to throttle someone. That’s just how she was made. Her brain was tweaked for aggression; being angry is as close to happy as she can get.

But her _second_ biggest desire is for Kae to be happy. Nana knows Kae better than anybody: a big, dumb idiot who never wished ill on anybody, and got turned into a war machine then locked in a box. Where’s the justice in that?

That’s what makes Nana angriest of all. Kae may be a big, dumb idiot – but she’s _Nana’s_ big, dumb idiot. And she deserves _better._


	24. Employment (OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: 100% OJ / Suguri + Sora  
Characters: Kyoko

Kyoko took naturally to life as a librarian.

She likes the peace. The quiet. The feeling of mostly never having to do anything besides impose order on unruly books, which generally have trouble fighting back. She’s taking night classes on how to repair bindings.

Sometimes her sisters visit. She makes them little lists of recommendations in her head. Hime wants cookery books to read and then ignore. Sora likes books about animals. Nanako wants comics – instant gratification. Even now, she’s looking out for them. Still the responsible ‘mother’.

But at least she can go out for a drink after work.


	25. Blessing (OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: 100% OJ  
Characters: Iru

Iru, Hime is fond of saying, has been blessed with lean muscle, sharp eyes, and a tiny brain. In the new world, the latter might be the biggest blessing of all.

She doesn’t know enough to dull her wonder. Trains, vending machines, escalators – everything is new and fascinating. There’s nothing too mundane to celebrate.

In the end, her enthusiasm and easy smile are infectious. She is friendly because she is fearless, quick to love and be loved.

She’s also quick to shoot her friends with a gun just as large as her brain is tiny. Iru is blessed – not perfect.


	26. Flowering (OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: 100% OJ / Suguri + Sora  
Characters: Hime, NoName

“You know, I really _don’t _know why Suguri insists on keeping you,” Hime sniffs.

NoName’s head looks as smug as he knows how. “Obviously, it’s because of my good looks.”

“Oh, undoubtedly,” Hime replies, with a tone that’s _very_ low on the pH scale. “No doubt it’s your sartorial elegance, too. That plant pot is a fantastic look on you.”

“Say whatever you like. But I’ve made it big. I get to be fed and watered by two beautiful women in thigh-highs.”

Hime smiles. He must be fed and watered, yes.

But Suguri never said the water couldn’t be boiling.


	27. Backfire (OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: 100% OJ / Suguri + Sora  
Characters: Saki, Sora

Saki has a plan.

She already has many cuteness factors accounted for, but there’s one she’s missing – the holy grail that will elevate her above Sham in the cute sweepstakes. The plan is simple.

“Oh, Sora,” she says with a winning smile. “You’re such a _reliable big sister_.”

Slowly, Sora nods. In one motion, Saki achieves the coveted ‘little sis’ cute point. The world is her oyster.

She realises too late that Sora takes discipline seriously – and that if she doesn’t take her coat off indoors, her ‘reliable big sis’ will happily warm her up with a slightly hot laser.


	28. Pyre (OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: 100% OJ / Suguri + Sora  
Characters: Star Breaker

Fire.

The Earth is rotten and decayed; humans are maggots feeding on the corpse, killing each other for the last precious scraps of plunder.

She, too, is a corpse. She died in the procedure and they brought her back. They trapped her in a body too strong to be killed, and barred the afterlife to her.

She yearns for that peaceful darkness, and to get it, she will snuff out the stars. There’s no casket big enough for the planet, and none strong enough to contain her body.

They cannot be buried. But perhaps, she thinks, they can be cremated.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This and the preceding 9 drabbles (starting from Ceiling) were part of a set I did to celebrate one of my other works, Tales of a Warless World, reaching 100 hits on Ao3. The theme was Suguri and Sora characters who, up to that point, hadn't appeared much in Tales.


	29. Warm (OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: 100% OJ / Suguri + Sora  
Characters: Nanako, Kae

“I’m not doing this to comfort you. You’re just warm.”

It’s a murky night, and cold. Winter is closing in; tomorrow it will rain in fine, freezing drops. They’re used to sleeping under the stars, but chill is too great tonight, and they have to resort to the tent. Kae hates the tent. It’s too enclosed, too dark. A little nightmare.

Nana doesn’t mind the dark. She almost doesn’t mind the cold. But she pretends. Kae runs a higher temperature than most. It’s enough of an excuse to cuddle up.

Nanako isn’t honest. But she’s warm in her own way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the start of a requested set of drabbles for Kae and Nanako.


	30. Puppy (OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: 100% OJ / Suguri + Sora  
Characters: Nanako, Kae

They haven’t talked about what they want out of Earth.

Kae, Nanako knows, wants a puppy. A cat would be fine, but a puppy is ideal. The thing Kae wants more than anything is companionship, and nothing can provide that better than man’s best friend.

Personally, Nanako isn’t as enthusiastic. She wouldn’t mind having another minion, but she doesn’t want something small and cute to compete with.

She _thinks_ she’d like a house. No, a _mansion_. Big rooms, big beds. Maybe a skylight in Kae’s room. Possibly a butler.

And maybe, just maybe – if there’s room – a doghouse out back.


	31. Precious (OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: 100% OJ / Suguri + Sora  
Characters: Nanako, Kae

Some things are valuable because they’re rare. Diamonds, for example. Or that feeling when you snuggle down under the covers on a cold day and it’s the comfiest thing in the world.

There are moments where Nanako is kind, and they’re a bit like that. They’re rare because she has to fight her brain for them; she has to try her hardest to make them happen, and it’s just so much _easier_ to be an asshole.

Kae understands. She knows that sometimes, the insults are just kindnesses that didn’t quite make it.

It helps her treasure the ones that do.


	32. Fashion (OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: 100% OJ / Suguri + Sora  
Characters: Nanako, Kae

Nanako can live with being short. It means she’s harder to hit, so it’s a _tactical choice_ and not just hormone deficiency.

But she hates that it makes her look cute _all the time_. She can wear biker leathers and a chain-link choker, and she looks like somebody’s kid at a fancy dress party. Put _Kae_ in the same clothes and she looks like a gorgeous punk rock chick. It isn’t fair.

At least there’s upsides. She might feel jealous when she sees Kae try on her new clothes. But it sure is fun to be in the dressing room.


	33. Mistake (OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: 100% OJ / Suguri + Sora  
Characters: Nanako, Kae

You’d think she’d get used to it – that falling sensation in the pit of her stomach when she realises that she’s pushed her friend too far, that Kae’s good temper is not infinite and she has done damage that may never heal.

Somehow, they always patch things up. But she knows how this works. Each time, it will get harder. The next argument might be the last.

She’s too stubborn to apologise, too damaged to change. She knows the end is coming, and that it is inevitable. She sees it, and cannot prevent it.

But, by god, she fears it.


	34. Annoyance (OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: 100% OJ / Suguri + Sora  
Characters: Kae, Nanako

Kae is a hybrid creature. Half of her is a beautiful and unblemished soul; half of her is a collection of extremely irritating habits.

She doesn’t fold her socks when she does the laundry. (She doesn’t always wear matching socks, either. The world is large and exciting; matching socks is a waste of valuable exploring time). She puts empty milk cartons back in the fridge. She eats pizza from the crust inwards.

Worst of all, according to Nanako, is that she can’t sleep with her clothes on – which wouldn’t be so bad, except she also can’t sleep without a hug.


	35. Stream (OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: 100% OJ / Suguri + Sora  
Characters: Kae, Nanako

Copper tinged leaves float serenely down the stream. A wooden bridge creaks under their weight, and echoes through the forest around them.

“I wonder if it’s warm enough to swim in?” Nanako asks. Her fingers dangle over the railing, towards the burbling water.

She’s testing fate, she knows. Anybody else – Hime, Iru, even Saki – would give her a hard shove right now, and send her into the river. But Kae is too nice even to do that.

Sometimes, Nanako wishes that she wasn’t. It would be nice, she thinks wistfully, to be justified for once. To be in the _right_.


	36. Jealousy (OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: 100% OJ / Suguri + Sora  
Characters: Kae, Nanako, Sora

The more Sora thinks, the more dangerous she becomes.

The _less_ Kae thinks, the more dangerous she becomes.

Alone they are inert. Together they are brilliant. The joy of competition brings them to life. One moves, the other follows; they can always burn hotter, shine brighter. It’s a beautiful friendship.

Too beautiful. Nanako sees it, and seethes. She has _always_ been Kae’s most important person. No-one has ever come close. Until now.

She doesn’t know if she can meet the challenge. If it’s even a challenge at all. But Nanako is seething. For once, she’s going to try her best.


	37. Mathematics

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: 100% OJ / Suguri + Sora  
Characters: Kae, Nanako

“You don’t get it,” Nanako says grandly. “This is as good as life gets.”

She’s drinking something that feels like liquid fire, but they served it to her in half a coconut shell so it must be fine. She has ID now, so she can drink it. She can drink _anything_.

Kae isn’t the brightest person, but she can do maths. She thinks if you stacked fourteen of those shells together, they’d be as tall as Nana. She’s had three already. Nanako is currently one-fifth alcohol by volume.

She doesn’t know what will happen. But she’s sure it’ll be _explosive_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the maths part of this, I'm assuming Nanako is roughly 140cm tall. A coconut cup found online is 4 inches tall, aka 10cm, therefore Nanako is exactly 14 coconut cups. Batman would be almost 19 coconut cups tall, and the Empire State Building is approx. 4430 coconut cups tall at the tip. This is the kind of weird stuff I look into when I write these stories.


	38. Dutch (OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: 100% OJ / Suguri + Sora  
Characters: Kae, Nanako

If Kae’s not burning random objects, she’s burning calories. Her metabolism is a source of envy for her sisters.

It’s Nanako that suffers. She gets the “pleasure” of watching Kae eat four or five times a day; it’s as infuriating as it is expensive. Kae can make a fresh cream doughnut look utterly _exquisite_, while Nana – with her tiny body – has to count calories.

“Fwaaaa! Thanks for the meal!” Kae says. There is still cream on her lips.

“Yeah, yeah.” Nanako shrugs, but she can’t look away. For a moment, she forgets to be angry.

Until she sees the bill.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the end of the Kae/Nanako series, which was requested by Quincy.


	39. Whisky (Touhou)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Touhou Project  
Characters: Suika, Yukari

They drink together once a year, at the turning of the leaves. Already there is a sleepiness about Yukari’s face, the ghost of pleasant dreams to come.

This year, they’re drinking whisky from the outside world – smooth, mellow, the colour of sunlight trapped in a glass. A quiet, intimate kind of drink.

They swap stories of a world gone by, a world so old even they barely remember it. A world that was golden and brimming with potential. A world truly their own.

Yukari’s head nods as the night closes; together, they sleep. But only Suika awakes in the morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the start of a ten-drabble sequence themed around Suika.
> 
> Fun fact: Suika is my favourite. I remember picking her in IaMP and immediately just falling love with her. Sadly, a lot of Suika stories/doujins just write her off as a one-gag drunk, even though she has a lot of potential plot points and lore pointing to a deeper interpretation. I'd love to do a full Suika story someday, but I don't know 'my' Suika well enough to pull it off yet; in these drabbles, I'll be practising a more serious version of her that I'd love to have underlying her normal cute, fun self.


	40. Courage (Touhou)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Touhou Project  
Character: Suika

It is said that oni fear fried beans. That might be true.

But Suika Ibuki fears nothing. She fears nothing, not because she is drunk – although she definitely is – or because she is foolish, but because she is yearning for defeat.

Humans forgot, but she remembers. She is the deva that waits on the mountain humanity has yet to climb. The other oni have given up on them, but she still believes: one day, humans will have the strength to topple her.

It is a day she awaits anxiously, for the top of a mountain is a lonely place indeed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The concept of 'humans' cropped up a lot in these drabbles. As an oni, Suika is defined by her opposition to humans and her position as the 'villain' of the human narrative, something she no longer occupies, and the setting decision for oni to abandon humans out of disgust from their trickery. Humans vs. oni is, in a sense, what Suika is all about underneath, and her continued association with humans like Reimu is one of her most interesting traits.


	41. Schochu (Touhou)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Touhou Project  
Character: Suika

It’s a rowdy kind of night tonight. The liquor is fire on her tongue; the old songs, the lost songs, spring unbidden to her lips. She wants to love, or fight, or both; for once, the alcohol bites, and she is reminded she’s alive.

She feels something hit her, and she hits back. There are cries of terror and surprise as the fight breaks out, as she pummels the enemy into submission. She wonders why they don’t fight back.

When she wakes up, she wakes to a crater. Only then does she realise that what hit her was the floor.


	42. Wasted (Touhou)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Touhou Project  
Characters: Suika, Alice

She doesn’t get along with Alice, because Alice holds back. She never uses all her power. Never tries her hardest, or achieves her full potential.

She could be so much _stronger_. Sure, she isn’t human, but as youkai go she’s close enough. It’s a waste.

Suika can tell she’s scared; under her cool exterior is a cowardly heart. But is she afraid of her power? Or is she just afraid to try her best and fail?

In the end, she’s a puppet. Controlled by something other than herself. But Suika knows something about puppets, and strings.

Eventually, they will _snap_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since I'm so interested in Suika's relationship with humans, it follows that I'm interested in her relationship with Alice, an ex-human who still acts like one of the most human youkai in the setting. I'd like to write a full story about Suika and Alice one day. (Mokou, another 'human' character, is somebody else I'd like to do a Suika story about.)


	43. Mead (Touhou)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Touhou Project  
Character: Suika

If she had to pick a favourite animal, it would be bees. They are small, flying fragments of a greater whole; there are days she feels like that, too. She can relate.

But they show that many small creatures can do things impossible to a single large one. She sees it in bees, and she sees it in humans, although bees are smarter in that they do not divide themselves.

So when she drinks mead, she drinks with respect. It is a symbol of bees, and their power.

It also goes great with salty snacks. Bees are clever like that.


	44. Meduseld (Touhou)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Touhou Project  
Characters: Suika, Aya

Oni and tengu rarely drink together nowadays, but for Suika and Aya, it has become a habit.

Aya is there to swap stories, and Suika is there to drink. But they are old, and ostensibly wise; they have realised what few other people know.

The beer flows; the tale unfurls. Somewhere, a detail or two gets lost. A deed gets inflated, a truth is misremembered. It is all as intended. This is the way it is done. Aya leaves with a tale exaggerated – and distilled.

It is people that make stories.

But it is beer that turns them into legends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 'Meduseld' is the name of a great hall in LOTR. It means 'mead hall' in Old English.


	45. Beer (Touhou)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Touhou Project  
Characters: Suika, Mystia

At first, she only helped Choujuu Gigaku to pay off her tab at Mystia’s stand.

But to be honest, she enjoys it. Noise, dancing, a howling crowd – a concert is as good as a party, especially for a boisterous oni.

She scatters herself amongst the crowd, ferrying mugs of beer to and fro on many tiny pairs of legs. Drink, she urges. Shout, and be merry.

It is difficult to be lonely when surrounded by so many people.

Of course, she has a beer or eight herself. As a result, her tab never goes down.

She can live with that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Even though Suika's almost always depicted in the middle of a party, loneliness is one of her core motivations, so I figured that she'd actually be quite a fan of Choujuu Gigaku. If I'd had space, I would have worked in her talking about Buddhism with Kyouko, since Perfect Memento in Strict Sense mentions in passing that 'very few oni are not well-versed in the principles of Zen.'


	46. Hangover (Touhou)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Touhou Project  
Characters: Suika, Reimu

The best part about drinking with Suika is knowing you’ll get home safe.

She hefts Reimu over her shoulder like a sack of rice, says her goodbyes and begins to walk. She doesn’t sway. She doesn’t totter. For once, her bleary eyes are focused, and clear.

The bones of Gensokyo tremble as she goes, because she is an oni taking a human to her lair. She is truer, _realer_, in this moment than any other.

In the morning, all is normal. But she remembers. The land remembers. She was once a deva of the mountain.

Occasionally, she is one still.


	47. Sake (Touhou)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Touhou Project  
Characters: Suika

Of all the many drinks, sake is her favourite.

True, there are stronger drinks. And true, she has drunk so much from her gourd that the flavour no longer captivates her as it once did.

But it is smooth, mellow, and easy to drink – things that don’t matter to _her_, but to the people _around_ her. They feel they can party longer without being drunk, and that’s what she truly appreciates.

Because there’s one thing she knows about parties: little by little, people hit their limit. They disappear. Sake stems the flow, but…

Sooner or later, she is drinking alone.


	48. Zapoy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Touhou Project  
Characters: Suika

They say she’s dishonest, for an oni.

In a sense, they’re right. She’s pretending to be something she’s not.

Because, of all the oni, she _understood_. She understood the human’s tricks – their ambushes, their slyness, their dishonour – were just another form of strength. Strength of mind, not strength of arm.

Knowledge, she found, corrupts. It made her a little more human. A little less oni. She can see the possibilities, and drinks to forget them.

She still wears her fetters, though they broke long ago. She is always drunk – because she fears what she could do, if she were sober.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 'Zapoy' is a Russian term used to describe a state of continual drunkenness, usually lasting two or more days.


	49. Servant (Touhou)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Touhou Project  
Characters: Koakuma, Patchouli

Patchouli’s job is to create and solve problems. Or, in other words, to be a witch – although _certain_ witches create more problems than they solve.

Koakuma’s job is similar, but different. She creates order where there is chaos, and chaos where there is order; by her hands are the books of the library subjected to the ignominy of alphabetical order, and by her hands does the occasional juicy tome find its way into the wider world.

In the end she is her mistress’s servant, and shares the same noble goal. Ultimately, they make life interesting – if sometimes a little short.


	50. Frog (Touhou)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Touhou Project  
Characters: Suwako

Better the devil you know, she told them.

Her followers, evidently, disagreed.

Her iron rings were laid to rust; her name was stricken from the shrine. But behind closed doors, hands were being shaken. Deals were being made. Curses and miracles, asked for and delivered.

She slept deeply. The world changed.

They say that if you heat up the water slowly, a frog will stay until it boils. She knows frogs, but she isn’t one. The world around them was running dry. Gensokyo beckoned.

Two big gods. One small pond. The splash they make will be the sound of progress.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This and the previous drabble are just 'bonus' drabbles to bring us up to a total of fifty, so I can evenly port them across to my own blog in one big lump.


	51. Dreamer (OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: 100% OJ / Suguri + Sora  
Characters: Suguri, Hime

“You know,” Hime says conversationally, “I think I used to dream of you, when I was aboard the spaceship.”

Suguri is quiet. It’s impossible, but… she’s old enough to know that there are things outside her understanding. Bigger than her. Bigger than Earth.

“Really?”

“No,” Hime says, and boops her on the nose. “But it sounds romantic, doesn’t it?”

“You’re one of a kind,” she says, and rolls her eyes.

“What about you? Would you dream of me, if you had the choice?”

Suguri pauses. “Maybe,” she says. “But I think I dream about you too much as it is.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the start of a ten drabble set about Suguri and Hime as a pairing.


	52. Little (OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: 100% OJ / Suguri + Sora  
Characters: Suguri, Hime

Hime has always loved her grand sweeping gestures, her outrageousness and ostentation. She thinks like a dancer; the motions are expression, and they should be as loud, and clear.

But she is learning that the smallest touches are the most important. The lingering when they unlace their fingers. The soft sigh Suguri makes when they hug. The way she sinks into every kiss and abandons herself.

They are such little, precious things, and they are the stuff from which love is built.

Hime still loves her grand gestures. But she knows that the little ones can speak just as loud.


	53. Legends (OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: 100% OJ / Suguri + Sora  
Characters: Suguri, Hime

They have always been legends.

A lonely spaceship, guided by an AI. Protected by a princess. Guarded by a goddess. She grew and grew as time went on, without ever meaning to; one day, they said, Hime would fix everything. They looked at her in awe.

The Earth is covered in Suguri’s footprints. She has seen everything. Humans recognise her without having seen her; she is in their genes. For time immemorial, she has been a stalwart – if sometimes grumpy – force for peace.

To humans, they are as gods. To each other, they are equals – long awaited, and deeply treasured.


	54. Ingenuity (OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: 100% OJ / Suguri + Sora  
Characters: Suguri, Hime

What do you get a girl who wants for nothing?

Hime ponders. Suguri’s birthday – nominated via committee – swiftly approaches, and she doesn’t have any ideas for a present.

Flowers are out; Suguri almost has flowers spring from the ground at her feet. Chocolate? But she’s not as into sweet things and Hime or Sora. Clothes? For a girl with seven sets of the same identical outfit?

In the end, only one idea suggests itself. But in Hime’s opinion, it’s crazy enough to work.

For Suguri’s birthday, Hime will get her… well, nothing.

And then wear it to bed for her.


	55. Strategy (OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: 100% OJ / Suguri + Sora  
Characters: Suguri, Hime

She’s trying to teach Hime about strategy games. It’s not going well.

She’s very against small units. In her experience, nothing of note has ever been achieved by rank and file; only powerful, unique people have changed the world.

But, Suguri explains, that’s overwhelmingly the _exception_ to the rule. Historically –

“Historically, we have Sora,” Hime snaps.

“There were wars _before_ Sora, you know.”

“And not very many after her, which proves my point. Now die against my captain, if you would.”

Hime loses, of course. Quite badly, at that. But she has the moral high ground. That’s what matters.

Maybe.


	56. After Hours (OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: 100% OJ / Suguri + Sora  
Characters: Suguri, Hime, Sora, Nath

“Hey, Nath?”

“Mm?”

“Thanks.”

The words sit in the air. They sip their drinks. Hime, who has had one glass too many, is sleeping on the table. Sora, who hasn’t, is sleeping anyway.

“What for?”

“Taking care of Sora for us,” Suguri says. She’s had a little too much herself. “We love her, but it’s nice to have time to ourselves.”

“We take care of each other. But I understand.”

They drink. Suguri thinks.

“You can be my maid of honour if we get married.”

“Right back at you.”

“…We’re drunk.”

“Yeah.”

Nath isn’t. But she smiles, all the same.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a while since I've updated this. I've... pretty much been constantly at work on one project or another, haha. I finally got some time out to properly focus, so there should be something of a bump over the next little bit.


	57. Retirement (OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: 100% OJ / Suguri + Sora  
Characters: Suguri, Hime

They lie at the foot of a great tree, dappled sunshine on their faces. Not far away is an empty picnic basket, its spoils already enjoyed.

She feels Hime’s hand in hers, and squeezes. Her eyes close. She’s warm, and her stomach is full. Happiness.

She wonders if this is what it feels like to be retired. She gave so _much_ to the Earth. Now it feels as if the Earth is giving back.

Perhaps it’s a temporary reprieve. But she’ll enjoy it while it lasts. Good food, the beauty of nature – and the woman she loves at her side.


	58. Bouquet (OJ)

“I’ve been thinking about changing the flower in my hair. Do you have a favourite?”

Suguri frowns. Sartorial advice isn’t her forte. But she understands the thought behind it.

“Let me think about it,” she says.

She thinks for a whole day. Bright colours would look good. Nothing yellow, it’d blend in with her hair.

“A lily would look nice,” she says in the end.

“I didn’t ask what would look nice. I asked for your favourite,” Hime explains patiently. “The truth is that… Every time I run my hand through my hair, I’d like to be reminded of you.”


	59. Avoidance (OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: 100% OJ / Suguri + Sora  
Characters: Suguri, Hime

“I saw Sora yesterday,” Hime says. Her voice is deliberate. “She’s starting to get grey hairs.”

Nothing. Silence.

“Before long, she’ll be the spitting image of you. Not that I mind, particularly–”

“Hime, _stop_.” Her voice is too sharp, the panic too naked. “I… don’t want to talk about this.”

A long silence. Too long. Breakfast starts to cool.

“So you’ve been avoiding her.” Hime shakes her head. “Oh, Suguri. We’re all getting older, you know? You should spend some time with her – before she goes.”

Suguri breathes. The future is coming.

The one thing even she cannot avoid.


	60. Abandonment (OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: 100% OJ / Suguri + Sora  
Characters: Suguri, Hime

“How much longer do we have left?” she asks. She strokes Hime’s hand with her thumb.

“Oh, not much longer now.” Hime’s voice is relaxed, dreamy. Tired. She doesn’t stay awake for long nowadays. “I’m a little disappointed. I thought I’d get a few more centuries, at least.”

She has no wrinkles, but she is old, and dying. Every day, Suguri wakes up afraid that today will be the last day.

“If nothing else, Suguri, please remember this: it has been a pleasure, growing old with you.”

For a long moment, they embrace. And then, reluctantly, turn out the light.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't often do more sombre fiction, and trend towards happier ends -- so drabbles like this are some of the only times I really get the chance to examine that kind of thing.


	61. Clairvoyance (Touhou)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Touhou Project  
Characters: Momiji Inubashiri, Aya Shameimaru

The rumour is she can see the future. Some call it clairvoyance; others call it far-sight.

It’s true enough. To see the future is to look ahead of you. Momiji can just see a little further than most.

It’s why she can’t stand Shameimaru – Ancient, powerful. An agitator. Her voice grows with every copy of Bunbunmaru she sells.

First, the promises. Then the politics. Finally, the coup. Every move planned out in advance, like a game of shogi.

It’s easy to see it, if you’re looking. Momiji watches the horizon, with her piercing eyes.

She doesn’t like what she sees.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the start of a 10 drabble set for one of my other favourite Touhou characters, Momiji.


	62. Night Games (Touhou)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Touhou Project  
Characters: Momiji Inubashiri, Reimu Hakurei

The hazy silhouette of the mountain in moonlight. Rust coloured leaves on the wind. The clatter of shogi pieces on a borrowed board.

It’s not often that Inubashiri comes out this far to drink. But even she can’t resist the scent of fried eel. She didn’t gamble on a chance encounter with the Hakurei miko.

She doesn’t mind it, though. Reimu is, in a word, disinterested; she keeps her nose out of the mountain’s affairs. Not like the witch. Or the wind priestess.

She’s not bad at shogi, either. For a human. Though she plays much better when she’s drunk.


	63. Long Way Home (Touhou)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Touhou Project  
Characters: Momoiji Inubashiri, Nitori Kawashiro

She’s a common enough sight on the roadways – a wandering wolf on patrol. Some even raise a hand to her in passing, grateful to see her familiar, purposeful stride.

She’s most popular with kappa. They see her as a diligent, reliable sort – just the type to help reign in their excesses. They’re always asking favours, or offering them; sometimes she accepts. For diplomatic reasons, of course.

“Hey, Inubashiri. Great timing. I could use some company,” Nitori says. She holds out a bottle of beer – ice cold. “Fresh from my newest invention.”

Seems she’ll be taking the long way home tonight.


	64. Dragonfly Gazing (Touhou)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Touhou Project  
Characters: Momiji Inubashiri, Komachi Onozuka

Fireflies flitting across the surface of the river. The boatman sipping sake as she rows.

“Aw, relax. You tengu are as stiff as a board. It’ll be fiiiiine,” Komachi tells her.

It seemed so inviting. A boat ride back to the mountain, closer to the cool water than the raging sun. It was only when the boat started tipping that she realised her mistake.

“I have faith in your abilities,” she lies woodenly. Her tail is fluffed up and still.

The sake jar disappears into the clear water.

She can hear the fireflies laughing as she swims back to shore.


	65. Tension (Touhou)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Touhou Project  
Characters: Momiji Inubashiri, Aya Shameimaru

Pursuit under the crescent moon, ears of barley crushed beneath the slats of her geta.

The heat of the chase is boiling inside her. Ancient instincts springing back to the surface. Territory. The hunt. If they run, what else can a wolf do but give chase?

The sharp curve of the moon, reflected in her sword. She halts.

“Aww… Poor Momiji. You’re always chasing, but you never catch anybody. You should work on your speed.” A sardonic smile from an arrogant crow.

The growl dies in her throat; her head bows.

It takes a second longer to sheathe her sword.


	66. Palette (Touhou)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Touhou Project  
Characters: Momiji Inubashiri

A sudden downpour. She takes shelter with a jizou statue, forgotten by the roadside.

She likes to watch the Human Village on rainy days. From her perch on Youkai Mountains, the streets seem to bloom like flowers or sea anemone as humans scurry back and forth, clutching their colourful umbrellas.

Better than that are the festivals at New Year. Umbrellas, yukatas, fireworks. A tableau of colour, even more special for its rarity, and lovely to observe from afar.

Sometimes – very rarely – she wishes she could join the festivities.

Life would be more colourful. But alas. The mountain waits for her.


	67. Superior (Touhou)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Touhou Project  
Characters: Momiji Inubashiri, Suika Ibuki

“So, you’re that reporter’s subordinate?”

“Absolutely not. Ma’am.”

The drunken oni grins back at her. What foul luck – the one time she attends a banquet, she meets an oni.

“Oh, I see, I see. So you’re her toy, is that it?”

Her first instinct is to snap. But the dog that barks at an oni falls silent for eternity.

“...No.”

The grin widens.

“Oh? Ohhh? Does she toy with you, then?”

“…Perhaps.”

“Ahaha! See? Sake makes everyone honest. Here, a reward. Drink, drink!”

Momiji grimaces, and drains her cup. She wonders how quickly she can go from honest to unconscious.


	68. Satisfaction (Touhou)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Touhou Project  
Characters: Momiji Inubashiri

She has little in the way of treasure. Patrol tengu live a spartan life; her bunk is no better or worse than any other’s, and her clothes are hard wearing, as her station demands.

Her one extravagance is a fine hair comb from the outside world, that she bought from the half-youkai’s curiosity shop. Three day’s wages, and worth every coin. On quiet nights, she can been found in her alcove at the guardhouse, sweeping it through the soft fur of her tail.

A vanity, perhaps. But it is comfort to her, and the small comforts make all the difference.


	69. Sermon (Touhou)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Touhou Project  
Characters: Momiji Inubashiri, Sanae Kochiya

Precisely because the gods are invisible, they are believed in. Even in Gensokyo, this is true.

When gods are viewed clearly, their mystique disappears. It’s hard to revere something once you know its nature.

“Oh, Momiji! Thanks for delivering the mail!” the wind priestess says. Always over-familiar, cheerful, erratic. “Ooh, looks like some good ones. Hey, you know what I miss? Coupons! Isn’t it super satisfying when you’re saving up and you get enough coupons for the discount?”

“I’m sure…”

The Living God is certainly easy on the eyes. But her sermons could be a little easier on the ears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter quotes a haiku by Shinpei.


	70. Salutations (Touhou)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Touhou Project  
Characters: Momiji Inubashiri, Aya Shameimaru

“Here’s to another good year, Inubashiri.”

Outside is a raucous party, from which she has excused herself. But she has a visitor at her bunk.

With furrowed eyebrows, she accepts the glass.

“That’s it, Shameimaru? No barbed comments?”

“I can make one, if you’d like.”

“I’ll pass.”

They touch glasses, A moment of quiet.

“It’d be a better year if I didn’t have to deal with you as much.”

“Oh, c’mon. You know I only bother you because you’re my favourite.”

Momiji smiles bitterly. Like her newspaper, Aya is full of polite lies.

With, perhaps, a rare kernel of truth.


	71. Wanted: Cookbook (Touhou)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Touhou Project  
Characters: Alice Margatroid

“My, my… I made too much again today.”

She doesn’t need to eat, but she’s a fine chef. For Alice Margatroid, it’s a point of pride. A witch should be precise, rigorous, dextrous; if one cannot master the domestic, how can one master the arcane? (It’s not as if she’s biased, at all. Or trying to show up other, sloppier magicians.)

But every recipe assumes she’s cooking for a family. Her home has many mouths, but only one of them can eat.

She eats her stew in silence. She’d never admit it, but she’s getting sick of cooking for one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The theme of this set is what kind of books the various Touhou girls might be in need of.


	72. Wanted: Travel Brochure (Touhou)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Touhou Project  
Characters: Renko Usami, Maribel Hearn

Two students on an experiment in a foreign city – looking for something they’re not sure is there. They probably won’t find it in a curbside cafe, but it’s a pleasant place to start the search.

“You tire so easily.” Renko Usami, her hand poised over a glass of sparkling lemonade.

“I wouldn’t if you’d stop getting lost.” Maribel Hearn, drinking black tea even in the sun.

Outside of Japan, there are fewer boundaries. But they aren’t looking that hard. Sometimes, it’s nice to have an excuse to spend time in the sun together.

Some directions might not necessarily hurt, though.


	73. Wanted: Forbidden Romance (Touhou)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Touhou Project  
Characters: Koakuma, Patchouli Knowledge

She whistles as she walks. There are places in the Great Library that even Patchouli does not know; for Koakuma they are oases, islands in a sea of books.

And what does one do with an island, except for burying treasure?

Today’s offering is particularly good, judging by the cover. A musclebound young man, embraced covetously by a masterful older gentleman with the fangs of a vampire. She slips it between some innocuous grimoires, and carries on her way.

There are places Patchouli does not know. But she’ll find them eventually.

And when she does, it’s going to be _hilarious_.


	74. Wanted: Scripture (Touhou)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Touhou Project  
Characters: Sanae Kochiya, Kanako Yasaka, Suwako Moriya

Kanako is grumbling again. She’s become aware of a deficiency in their strategy: namely, their literature, which does not actually exist.

“We don’t need it,” Suwako points out. “Our way is older. More pure.”

But the _Buddhists_ have literature, Kanako scowls. They have tracts and screeds and scrolls, and they think they’re better than us. Something would _have_ to be done about it.

As they argue the finer points, Sanae retreats to her room with a pen and a smile. She’s never written a holy book before, but it can’t be too difficult.

Gensokyo will never know what hit it.


	75. Wanted: Pet Care Manual (Touhou)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Touhou Project  
Characters: Reimu Hakurei, Aunn Komano, Marisa Kirisame

It’s not so bad, having Aunn around. She keeps the annoying visitors away (except Marisa, who is best kept where you can see her).

Reimu has nothing against a komainu who makes herself useful. But she sometimes wishes she’d make herself _less_ useful, or, rather, remove ‘alarm clock’ from her uses.

It’s nice, sometimes, to watch her hang around, having Marisa scratch her chin and share senbei with her. There’s something very calming about the scene.

It has occurred to her that, perhaps, _she_ should be the one scratching Aunn’s chin and eating senbei.

But that would require getting up.


	76. Wanted: Songbook (Touhou)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Touhou Project  
Characters: Satori Komeiji, Rin Kaenbyou, Utsuho Reiuji

Satori Komeiji lies in bed, all three of her eyes open and bloodshot.

The pets want to sing happy birthday to her – for which birthday, she doesn’t know. It’s supposedly a surprise. A surprise! For a mind reader! They’ve been practising when they think she’s asleep, ensuring that she never is.

Okuu, of course, is the choirmaster, and likely the architect of the plan. That’s not a problem. She has a pleasing, husky contralto, and she’s a bird. Birds are known for singing.

Orin is not a bird. Orin is a cat.

And by god, does she sing like one.


	77. Wanted: Page-A-Day Diary

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Touhou Project  
Characters: Yukari Yakumo, Ran Yakumo

At first, it was just information.

Yukari has so many plots. Wheels within wheels. The lightest touches yield the greatest results – if you know _just_ where to nudge. Data is everything.

But it’s hard to keep an eye on the world in hibernation. Why not make her shikigami do the work?

Over time, those little diary pages became a pleasure. The daily joys, the triumphs and setbacks in miniature. Seeing how Ran still though about her – even pined for her – while she slept.

Ran’s diary shows the past, to predict the future. And makes the present worth waking up to.


	78. Wanted: Bonsai For Beginners (Touhou)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Touhou Project  
Characters: Youmu Konpaku

Youmu has yet to master the humble bonsai – a damning indictment of her skill as both a swordsman, and a gardener.

For one, it’s hard to trim them with a sword. They’re so delicate. And unlike most of the plants in Yuyuko’s garden, they seldom fight back.

Even then, it’s easy to make mistakes that you can’t fix. Every little trim must be considered and ruminated on, undertaken with a calm mind and a steady hand.

But she won’t give up. One day, she will achieve her ultimate mastery.

Although her mistress would prefer her to master the ladle instead.


	79. Wanted: 101 Card Tricks (Touhou)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Touhou Project  
Characters: Sakuya Izayoi

“What’s the point of learning card tricks when you can stop time? Can’t you just cheat?”

It’s a question Sakuya hears all the time. But it misses the point.

Being a maid is all about discipline. Comporting oneself with elegance at all times. Dealing efficiently with problems before they become disruptive. And, above all, never outshining one’s mistress. Even if you could.

Of course she could cheat at card tricks. Nothing would be simpler. That’s the point. To have the option to cheat available to you at any time, and never take it –

That is the essence of a maid.


	80. Wanted: Teaching For Dummies (Touhou)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Touhou Project  
Characters: Fujiwara no Mokou, Keine Kamishirasawa

She never thought to build anything.

Eternal life. Hundreds of years in a waking nightmare, and she only ever bothered to tear things apart. Caught up in her guilt. A woman with blood on her hands should not leave fingerprints on the clay of the world.

But she covered for Keine one day when she was sick. Now the kids are asking for Substitute Teacher Mokou again, who told them stories of the past so lifelike, it was as if she’d been there.

How about that?

She’ll never be a teacher. But maybe she can drop by, now and then.


	81. Strength (100% OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Suguri & Sora / 100% OJ  
Characters: Sham, Sora

Sora is strong, but she is lost. The world is confusing, and larger than she knows; the future Suguri built has no place for weapons like her. She tries to express it, and struggles. The words don’t come easily.

Sham’s voice is caring. Patient. “Sora, don’t be silly. As long as I exist, there’ll always be a place for you.” She points to her chest. “Right here.”

Only Sham has the bravery to say a thing like that and mean it. It’s a strength that even Sora doesn’t have.

“Sora.” Sham’s hand is small, but warm. “Let’s be idols together.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This series is themed around Sham as a character.


	82. Battle (100% OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Suguri & Sora / 100% OJ  
Characters: Sham, Sora

Sham has never hesitated to fight for the things she wants – whether it’s the last scoop of ice cream in the tub, or to bring back her favourite defector in the Great War. People forget because she smiles, but behind that smile is a soldier still.

Unfortunately, there is an unmovable object for her irresistible force.

Sora is also not afraid of a fight, and has the TV remote. Sham’s favourite romcom is on the screen, but it probably won’t be that way for long.

The fighters take their corners, and the match begins. The adverts roll before they finish.


	83. Philosophy (100% OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Suguri & Sora / 100% OJ  
Characters: Sham

The cardinal sin for an idol is arrogance. She believes that with all her heart. There’s a trend for smugness in stage personas, but it should never be allowed to transition into genuine egotism.

Some idols don’t get that. They think that because they’re standing up on stage, they’re better than the audience. They haven’t thought about what they’re doing.

But Sham has. She knows that, when your fans look up at you as you sing, they’re holding their heads up high. And when you reach out a hand, it is to help them up to the heights you’ve achieved.


	84. Fast Food (100% OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Suguri & Sora / 100% OJ  
Characters: Sham, Sora, Nath

“It’s delicious!”

She watches as, with her endorsement, Sora and Nath help themselves to a slice of fresh pizza.

“I get why Sora’s not tried it before. But what about you, Nath?”

“It’s finger food,” Nath replies, a little dismissively.

The taste brings back memories of post-concert parties. It’s greasy, fatty, salty, but satisfying. The definition of a guilty pleasure. No good for the skin, though.

“It’s good,” Sora opines. Nath nods her head in begrudging agreement.

Sham smiles, and prepares to teach them another lesson about pizza: if you want more than one slice, you have to move _fast_.


	85. Facade (100% OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Suguri & Sora / 100% OJ  
Characters: Sham, various mentioned

It’s refreshing, but terrifying. Like falling without wings.

She’s used to putting on a face. Something immaculate, something clean. Glitter, sparkles, make-up and smiles – not all fake, but not all hers, either.

She got good at it, too. Sometimes the fact fools even herself.

But it won’t fool Sora or Suguri, whose eyes look straight past the facade. It won’t fool Nath or Hime, who are too canny to accept things at their face.

They see when the smile frays, the rough edges of the woman beneath it. It’s terrifying, but refreshing. And she wouldn’t have them any other way.


	86. Biker (100% OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Suguri & Sora / 100% OJ  
Characters: Sham

People never expect her to be a biker. She can see why. Form fitting leather has never really been her aesthetic, although it could be if the right person asked for it.

But motorcycles scratch itches for her that nothing else sates. They indulges her love of machines, for one. Give her a chance to get down between the axles and the oil.

But more than that, they’re a symbol of rebellion. When the engine revs up, she stops being a stainless idol.

For a little while, she’s a bad girl. Not a very good bad girl, but one nonetheless.


	87. Faces (100% OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Suguri & Sora / 100% OJ  
Characters: Sham, Nath

The shop assistant’s face grows more and more concerned.

They’re having a spirited debate about what to drink tonight. Sham’s in favour of alcopops, but Nath wants something more refined. Neither will budge an inch.

She’s… surprised, to be honest. She thought it’d be easy. She’s seen Sora roll right over Nath a thousand times, with only token resistance. Why is it so different when it’s her?

The face that Nath shows her is different to the one Sora sees. That frustrates her in ways she can’t articulate.

The “debate” continues. And the entire store has a front row seat.


	88. Candle (100% OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Suguri & Sora / 100% OJ  
Characters: Sham

In some cultures, they light candles and float them out onto the water, to represent the souls of those that have passed.

Tonight’s is a stripped back performance. Just her, a guitar, and a whole crowd full of people. It always makes her nervous. Without her backing track, her dance routine, or anybody else to back her up, she feels vulnerable. Almost naked.

It’s all worth it, though. Just for the view.

Somebody is holding up a lighter. Others follow. Soon she has ten thousand little lights, floating on a sea of people.

In memoriam, for the fallen: an encore.


	89. Bone (100% OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Suguri & Sora / 100% OJ  
Characters: Sham

She loved fortune telling as a kid. Didn’t everybody? There was a mystique to it, a compulsion.

It was a taste she lost after the war. A lot of times, it felt like the future had disappeared into the flames, and they were just living in the last dregs of what was left.

Even when peace returned, she couldn’t stand looking at them. They were all about love. Finding your perfect partner. Little joys she couldn’t have.

But nowadays…

“Oh, Sham. You read the newspaper?” Sora asks.

She hasn’t done the crossword yet. But her horoscope is circled in red.


	90. life is SUPER DOPE (100% OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Suguri & Sora / 100% OJ  
Characters: Sham, Sora

A clear, crisp night, dotted by stars. They’re all relaxing together after a concert; Suguri and friends might not be able to come to every live event, but they’re almost always there for the after party. The fatigue hasn’t yet left her bones; Sora, her co-idol, is draped over a chair next to her.

This might be all she ever wanted.

The world is okay. She’s okay. She’s been accepted, by a group of people like her. She has Sora.

She could stand to have a little more Sora, actually.

But other than that, it’s the happiest she’s ever been.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title is taken from a song by the artist punipunidenki.


	91. Fury (Touhou)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Touhou Project  
Characters: Reimu Hakurei, Marisa Kirisame

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The theme for this set is "overflowing / overwhelming".

The anger rolls off her in waves. The Hakurei Miko – the hammer of judgement that falls upon the evils of Gensokyo – is on the move. Gone is her indolence and her benign frown; her head, emptied of the stresses and joys of everyday life, is filled with dreams of punishment.

That morning, she found a note in her kitchen.

It wasn’t a ransom note, or a threat. It was an IOU for the chestnut yokan she’d been saving since Friday, signed – of course – _Marisa Kirisame_.

It’s not what most would call an incident.

But it’s damn well about to be.


	92. Compassion (100% OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Suguri & Sora / 100% Orange Juice  
Characters: Sora, Alte

She reached out her hand.

She, an enemy, who cut down so many of their mechanised units with barely a blink – she had the nerve to extend a hand to Alte and say, “Let’s stop.”

That was what it was, right? Bravado. Her specs were so high she could afford to do it, without fear. She didn’t understand how a normal human would have felt, making such a decision on the battlefield.

She was a monster. Pure and simple.

Alte grimaces. She can’t allow this… _thing_ to live any longer. Now is the moment. For an ending – or a beginning.


	93. Cruelty (Touhou)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Touhou Project  
Characters: Satori Komeiji

They’re whispering about her again.

They don’t _need_ to whisper. That’s the thing. She can hear what they’re thinking when they see her walk the streets of Old Hell; she doesn’t need the running commentary.

But they whisper anyway, and they whisper loudly, so they know she can hear. They want to vocalise their discontent, their malice, their discomfort. And they want her to _know_.

The thoughts, she can forget. But words have a weight that never leaves her. She carries them home with her, although she doesn’t want to.

It will be months before she leaves the palace again.


	94. Alcohol (Touhou)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Touhou Project  
Characters: Suika Ibuki

Humans wouldn’t notice. But Suika, having found the oni of Gensokyo, still kept herself apart from them.

Perhaps she had begun to scorn them.

She – who swallowed and recited bitter truths – understood. To be an oni is to be _the antagonist_ of humankind. To be ‘other’. A solitary, adversarial kind of existence.

So oni drank. To relieve loneliness. To forget about being an oni.

Oni drank. That was what oni _did_. The more you drank to forget, the more you fit the mould.

She isn’t lonely, any more. Her cup runneth over.

And though she drinks, she never drinks alone.


	95. Tears (100% OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Suguri & Sora / 100% Orange Juice  
Characters: Suguri

She wakes up, sometimes. Every few years, or hundred years, or hundred thousand. She doesn’t really know _why_ she wakes, but she always wakes up sobbing. Maybe she’s waking up just to cry.

What she’s crying about, she barely remembers. It’s so long ago that anything bad happened to her. Or that anything happened to her at all. It’s all simulated. A little empty.

She thinks her body is remembering things she can’t get in the simulation. What it was like to touch someone. Kiss someone.

Lose someone.

Suguri ponders it. It won’t be long before she’s asleep once more.


	96. Curiosity (Touhou)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Touhou Project  
Characters: Reimu Hakurei, Marisa Kirisame

Reimu has never asked Marisa what the deal with her family is.

As a woman who minds boundaries for a job, she can tell that there’s a line there that shouldn’t be crossed without thought. Not that it _can’t_ be crossed, or even that it would be undesirable to cross. Just that crossing that line would change things.

She sometimes catches herself mulling it over. Pondering how she would phrase the question, if she ever wanted to ask it.

For now, she remains placid. The Hakurei Miko does not act, but react.

But it certainly is interesting to think about.


	97. Devotion (Hololive)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Hololive  
Characters: Inugami Korone, Nekomata Okayu

Whether she’s winning or losing –

Whether she’s smiling or crying –

Whether she’s taking a laid-back stroll, or at the end of a gruelling marathon –

There’s one name that is never far from her lips.

Softly. Loudly. Angrily. Tearfully. Joyfully. There’s no other word she can say with so many different emotions, so many different ways.

Like a magic charm, or an incantation, it comes forth unbidden. Always, always, without even thinking about it –

Because whatever the distance between them, that name is always in her mind.

One day, when the world has calmed down, she’ll say it.

“Welcome home, Okayu.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't intend to make a habit of doing vtuber or hololive related stories, for a variety of reasons, but Korone and Okayu's relationship is quite obviously very special and heartwarming, and I felt like celebrating that in some small way.


	98. Charisma (Touhou)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Touhou Project  
Characters: Sakuya Izayoi, Remilia Scarlet

They’ll need new bedsprings again.

A vampire has the strength of an oni and the speed of a tengu – supposedly. _Which_ oni and _which_ tengu would be a fair question, but it doesn’t detract from the sheer power that Sakuya’s mistress exudes.

Which means that her tantrums are a special event. To her credit, she’s stopped hurling spears everywhere, and has settled for punching her pillow instead. Unfortunately, pillows explode, and mattresses collapse beneath her fists.

Sakuya finds it charming, personally. Charisma isn’t a measure of your ability to do no wrong.

It’s how cute you remain while doing it.


	99. Desire (100% OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Suguri & Sora / 100% Orange Juice  
Characters: NoName, Suguri

Man, NoName maintains, is an animal. A sack of chemistry and physics, no more in control of his urges than any other beast.

(He ignores the fact that his body is mostly cybernetic, and not biological. It doesn’t fit his narrative.)

Just as cats seek to curl up in the laps of their owners, so, too, does a man. All living things desire thighs. (He would quibble about the notion of having an owner).

Suguri listens. She’s not cruel, but has a sense of irony.

Man is an animal, he maintains. So she made him into a potted plant instead.

Refrigerator.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The last word isn't really part of the story, but we dropped a word somewhere in the course of this collection, and the 'x999' in the wordcount has been annoying me. So I added one extra here.


	100. Love (100% Orange Juice)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Suguri & Sora / 100% Orange Juice  
Characters: Sora, Nath

They did nothing today.

There were no battles. No hi-jinks or wacky misadventures. Nobody found out anything new about themselves, and there were no sweeping romantic gestures.

They relaxed. She read a book. They cuddled. Sora fell asleep draped over one side of the armchair, reading over her shoulder. That was it.

It’s the most in love that Nath has ever been.

It doesn’t matter what they do, or don’t do. It’s joyful just to be around each other. To see each other.

An ordinary, peaceful love, in the peaceful world they thought for.

It’s all she could have wanted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, there it is -- the hundredth drabble. I remember when the 100 drabble challenge was an actual thing... I never got that far with it at the time, but now I've ended up doing it entirely by accident, although in fits and spurts. I guess the next thing to aim for is 365, so we have one for every day of the year. I don't think it'll get that far, but who knows, right?


	101. Ocean Mood (100% OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Suguri / 100% Orange Juice  
Characters: Nath, Sora

“You’d make a good boat,” Sora says, out of the blue.

Nath raises an eyebrow. She _does_ have an affinity for the water; there’s something comforting in the weightlessness, in being swept up by something bigger and older than oneself. Not that she floats.

“It’s because,” Sora continues haltingly, “you have curves like a racing yacht.”

“Did Sham teach you that one?” Nath quips. “When it comes to flirting, I think you’re lost at sea.”

Sora accepts the criticism without complaint. It was probably still better than her original idea: Nath, like boats, seems like she’d be fun to ride.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next few drabbles all have Nath as a main character.


	102. Projection (100% OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Suguri / 100% Orange Juice  
Characters: Nath, Sora

She and Sora are poking around an antique shop when Nath, once again, meets her oldest nemesis: the grandfather clock.

She has an irrational hatred for them, and she doesn’t know why. She gets along fine with other analogue clocks, so it probably isn’t the incessant ticking – although grandfather clocks have to be annoyingly dramatic about it.

Perhaps it’s because she sees herself in them. Tall, well-crafted, with understated curves: they are her silhouette in carved mahogany, a mirror image made of wood.

But, of course, for one important feature.

Unlike her, a grandfather clock has a pair of hands.


	103. Chilled (100% OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Suguri / 100% Orange Juice  
Characters: Nath, Sora, Suguri, Hime

There are a surprising number of upsides to having prosthetic arms – or so Sora maintains. She always seems to be making up new ones.

Today’s offering, however, was a genuine surprise – and has been proven in live combat.

“Nath’s the best at snowballs,” Sora declares.

Hime and Suguri, who were the other side of the snowball fight, need no confirmation. They’re covered in powder. Nath’s snowballs aren’t too accurate, but her hands don’t get cold. With her output and Sora’s accuracy, victory was assured.

She still shivers when Sora’s fingers brush against hers. But it’s for an entirely different reason.


	104. Forgetful (100% OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Suguri / 100% Orange Juice  
Characters: Nath

Sometimes, she sits down with her prosthetics, and just… looks at them. These are her hands now; this is what they look like.

She can’t remember what her original hands looked like. Were they thin and bony, or big and rough? How long were her fingers? Did she paint her nails?

Age erases everything.

But at heart, she’s a practical person. What you _had_ doesn’t matter. Only what you’ve got. Her new hands are stiff and sometimes awkward, but they’re hers.

And with them, she’s going to seize opportunities she’d never have dreamed of when they were flesh and blood.


	105. Bottled Starlight (100% OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: Suguri / 100% OJ  
Characters: Nath

There are things in life you can’t touch. The feeling of getting up and knowing you’ll see a friend that afternoon, or that tinge of warmth when somebody tries to make you laugh. Things like that.

She wishes, sometimes, that she could catch those things and bottle them. Send them back in time, to a version of herself that desperately needed them.

But those things can’t be held. Just experienced as they come. Nath of the past will have to look after herself.

Because Nath of the present has a date today. And she wouldn’t miss it for the world.


	106. Unequal (100% OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: 100% Orange Juice / QP Shooting  
Characters: Mei, Natsumi

She can’t shake the feeling that Natsumi is babying her.

Of course, Natsumi babies everybody. She produces hot dinners like plants produce oxygen. It’s always there in the background, happening, like it or not.

But it doesn’t feel _equal_. Generosity like Natsumi’s is so easy to take advantage of, and that’s so important that she doesn’t. That _nobody_ does.

That’s why.

That’s why Mei comes home with bruises, from fights she shouldn’t have picked. That’s why she’s quick to swing, slow to retreat.

Because Natsumi is a precious treasure.

And _nobody_ is going to hurt her. Not on Mei’s watch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This drabble set was requested by QuincyUSA. Hope you enjoy them!


	107. Judge (100% OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: 100% Orange Juice / QP Shooting  
Characters: Mei, Natsumi

“He’s not good enough for you.”

“Mm…”

It’s the spring of their youth, and there’s enough love letters flying through their school for a ticker tape parade. They’re comparing notes about their potential suitors. So far, the potential is very little.

“I don’t think it’s about being good enough… Maybe it’s about being with somebody you like.”

“No way. Trust me – I’ve got the dirt on _everyone_ in this school. I’ll let you know if they’re good enough.”

There are a few brave enough to try for Natsumi’s hand. But with Mei on the case, their chances seem slim indeed.


	108. Temptation (100% OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: 100% Orange Juice / QP Shooting  
Characters: Mei, Natsumi

She had known that Natsumi kept a blog. But not that she kept a _diary_.

Right now, her host is downstairs – making tea and scones for their sleepover. More than enough time to give it a skim read and set it back under the pillow where she found it.

Mei pauses. Considers her options.

In her hands are Natsumi’s secret thoughts. But does she really want to know them? Truly?

With a heavy heart, she puts the book back, unopened.

It’s not about what she _might_ see. It’s what she might _want _to see.

Her own name, on every page.


	109. Default (100% OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: 100% Orange Juice / QP Shooting  
Characters: Mei, Natsumi

Mei was the only one brave enough to give her chocolate for Valentine’s day.

Natsumi is the star of the home economics class. She can make a cream stew that will take you to heaven and back, a curry that sets you five steps ahead on the path to enlightenment, and desserts that give you good luck on exams. She’s the best chef around. Everyone knows that.

So only Mei – brash, dependable Mei – had enough cojones to offer some cookies for her consideration.

They are, perhaps, a little burnt.

But it’s not like she has anything to compare them to.


	110. Tag Team (100% OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: 100% Orange Juice / QP Shooting  
Characters: Mei, Natsumi

They’re holed up in the library after school, crunching their way through the week’s homework.

Mei is the brains of the operation. People assume that, just because she hits other people as often as she hits the books, her grades are bad. In reality, she’s discovered that knowing how to write a persuasive essay is a very valuable and _transferable_ skill. As the head of the school newspaper, it’s one she possesses.

Natsumi provides tea, and diligence. Without her, there would be no homework done at all.

Together, they’re _almost_ academically unbeatable. Sadly, neither of them is great at math.


	111. Divergence (100% OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: 100% Orange Juice / QP Shooting  
Characters: Mei, Natsumi

It’s been a while since she realised that they want different things out of life.

Natsumi is all about cosy. She wants to spread happiness, person by person; small, incremental changes that make life better.

But Mei? Mei wants adventure. She wants excitement. She’s all for making the world better, but first, she wants to stop people from making the world worse.

They’re parallel lines. But the time for them to diverge is approaching fast.

She doesn’t know what will happen when it comes. But for now, she’s treasuring the moments – knowing that, whatever happens, they’ll always be best friends.


	112. Sleep Talk (100% OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: 100% Orange Juice / QP Shooting  
Characters: Mei, Natsumi

“Mei? You were talking in your sleep again.”

A hotel room in a strange city, comforting in its plainness. Her shirt is hanging on the back of the door, press pass in the front pocket. Beside her, Natsumi sits up, brushes the hair away from her eyes.

She’s seen a lot of things since she became a journalist. Sometimes, they leak out. She’s more… _afraid_ than she was when she was a girl. Kids bounce. Adults break.

Her hand finds Natsumi’s in the darkness.

The world goes on. But with Natsumi’s hand in hers, she’s ready to face another day.


	113. Clingy (100% OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: 100% Orange Juice / QP Shooting  
Characters: Mei, Natsumi

They say that loudest people are the loneliest, and Natsumi can believe it. After all, she’s met Mei.

Mei surrounds herself with people, and noise, and pets. If she’s left alone, she’ll seek people out and start a brawl – because she’d rather be in a fight than be by herself. She’s happy when she meets you, clingy when you leave.

In a way, Natsumi thinks it’s one of the most charming things about her. When Mei greets you, she greets you with an honest smile. That alone is a beautiful thing.

And it’s not like she dislikes clingy people, anyway.


	114. Tacit (100% OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: 100% Orange Juice / QP Shooting  
Characters: Mei, Natsumi

They have an understanding.

Even friends as close as they are keep secrets. Not well, of course. Mei’s mouth is too big, and Natsumi is too honest.

Mei knows that Natsumi goes to places, and talks to people, that she should have no knowledge of. That her sweet, cute friend is wrapped up in something bigger than school or homework.

And Natsumi knows that Mei is, possibly, maybe, _definitely_ in love with her.

Until they’re both ready, they keep their secrets safe. Don’t ask, don’t tell.

But when the time comes, they know – all they have to do is ask.


	115. Diligence (100% OJ)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Series: 100% Orange Juice / QP Shooting  
Characters: Mei, Natsumi

They skitter across the school courtyard with potted plants in their arms, clothes sodden with rain. The storm came suddenly; Natsumi leapt into action, pulling tarps over flowerbeds and bringing whatever she could inside.

She’s great friends with the gardening club. It’s not uncommon to see her after school with a sunhat and trowel, helping them tend the flowers. It stands to reason. Nobody appreciates fresh herbs like she does.

As they brave the winds together, Mei begins to realise that Natsumi is stronger than she knew – and that her hard work does not begin, or end, at the kitchen.


End file.
